[UPDATED and bumped - see below]
Teen pleads in crash that killed 3 | www.jconline.com | Journal and Courier
A Crawfordsville teenager has admitted to smoking marijuana about two weeks before causing a two-vehicle crash a year ago that killed two of his classmates and an Indianapolis woman.Tyler R. Sutton, 18, pleaded guilty this morning in Tippecanoe Superior Court 2 to three counts of operating a vehicle with a controlled substance causing death and feticide, all Class C felonies.
If Judge Thomas Busch accepts Sutton’s plea with the Tippecanoe County prosecutor’s office, at least two of those counts would have to be served concurrently – meaning the former North Montgomery High School student could spend up to 16 years in prison.
Toxicology tests taken after the crash showed that Sutton had marijuana metabolites in his blood, though Sutton’s Indianapolis-based attorney, Dennis Zahn, disputed in court that the drug was present in the teen’s urine.
Indiana law requires only that narcotic metabolites be present to establish impaired driving.
Though Sutton also admitted to smoking marijuana, he said today that it was his first and only time.
The teenager was 17 years old at the time of crash, but juvenile court Judge Loretta Rush waived him to adult court in March.
Indiana is one of the states with a per se DUID statute. In layman’s terms, that means if you test positive for any drug metabolite, you’ve been driving impaired in the eyes of the law. That’s metabolites, not the actual drug, as would be the case with someone failing an alcohol breathalyzer.
In the case of marijuana, inactive, non-impairing marijuana metabolites can remain detectable in one’s system for weeks days. Tyler Sutton was no more [likely to be] an impaired driver than any other sober driver on the road; he just had the misfortune to smoke a joint a couple of weeks days prior to the wreck
These insane per se statutes that count metabolites as impairment essentially mean that anyone who smokes marijuana in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, South Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Delaware, or Georgia and then drives anytime within the next day (for light, occasional tokers) to up to a month and a half week or more (for chronic tokers like me) is as guilty of a DUI as a drunk who blows over .08 BAC on a breathalyzer.
[UPDATE: NORML's Paul Armentano email's me to say "No way marijuana metabolites are present in the blood two weeks later. Huestis's work documented residual THC-COOH metabolite levels in blood for 72+ hours (THC and 11-hydroxy THC were purged within hours), but two weeks?
There's some recent unpublished work by Huestis finding residual THC/blood levels in the plasma (more sensitive by a factor of two than blood) of heavy users for 7 days (equivalent of 3.5 days if we were measuring whole blood), so I'd imagine that metabolites would linger even longer in such cases, but these were chronic users."]
I’m updating the headline and correcting some of the text and I apologize that I didn’t know those studies or look them up. However, the main point still stands – metabolites in one’s blood only document prior use, not current impairment.
The young man’s “first time two weeks ago” story is suspect, but there’s no evidence that he was smoking in the car or prior to driving. He’s eighteen, two of his friends, one 24 weeks pregnant, and an innocent 78-year-old lady are dead, and he’s looking at Criminal University until he’s 34. It’s a tragic enough – do we need to throw away a large chunk of this kid’s life for the crime of being a marijuana smoker who drives? Was it really a crime of ten Class C felonies? Or was it more like reckless driving or reckless endangerment or manslaughter – not three homicides and a feticide?
If there were proof of intoxication, that’s where I could support a stiff prison sentence. But metabolites only prove he’s a toker. So I guess no tokers are allowed to drive in Indiana, even when sober.
Meanwhile, a former Indianapolis police detective is busted for driving 68 mph in a 55 zone (2 mph faster than Tyler Sutton) at 2am and tests at .09 blood alcohol level – proof of impairment! He is let go on his own recognizance, with his $2,500 bail waived, and given a ride home. He faces “a minor misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a maximum $500 fine.”
Then there’s the police chief in Jasper, Indiana, getting caught driving drunk and blew a .13. He, too, was busted early in the morning, about 1am, going ten miles over the limit and crossing over the center line. He, too, is facing a misdemeanor charge.
So perhaps the eighteen-year-olds of Indiana should give up the pot and switch to alcohol. You can be proven impaired and only get a misdemeanor (well, maybe it helps a little to be a cop). Sadly, it seems some do, as just today, another young eighteen-year-old from Crawfordsville, Indiana has suffered a tragedy. He was a young man at the Delta Tau Delta fraternity at Wabash College. ”Authorities say alcohol was possibly involved.”
Get a grip people, he was NOT impaired!! Metabolites, as stated by radical russ, only indicates that he had smoked it PREVIOUSLY!! The metabolites form AFTER being broken down in your system. The punishment does NOT fit the crime, speeding & reckless endangerment do NOT deserve 16yrs in the slammer!!!
I was hit by an old lady who ran thru a redlight last year. Fortunately noone was hurt. I admit I was angry at the time as I just bought this new truck. The old lady admitted to me that she was on prescription medication. Her car was not drivable after the accident, but my truck was kind of drivable. I did not press any charges against her. She hit me pretty hard luckily my wheel took the brunt, she could of killed someone. Of course it would not of probably made headlines if she had killed someone because the stuff in her bood is legal prescription medication. So what if she did hurt someone, would she get prison for prescription medication residue in her blood?
PS: Some people should really start to look beyond their nose tips!
OMG are you guys serious? Like how short minded are you conservative ignorants?! He was on;y 17 at the time, and in that age boys experiment with things like pot. Pot isn’t even a drug that could influence ones ability to drive, even if smoked right before driving. It was a tragical accident and I feel really sorry for the victims and their families… But there’s no way a 17 year old boy can be punished like that! I mean, if you think one should get 16 years for something he didn’t even mean to do, what would you do to somebody who kills on purpose? Somebody who rapes? WTF should they be killed 18 times? This ist just plain stupidity and ignorance and you are the reason why the USA are in such a bad light compared to the rest of the world.
my 2 pence, peace.
sounds to me this kid should get treatment for drug addiction ,16 years in prison is not going to teach him anything but how to be a criminal,
Does not mean he was stoned!
My comments to Andrea,The point is there giving this kid 16 years,not for being reckless ,but for being a stoner ,sorry these people died,but the money they use to bust pot smokers could be used to teach kids how to drive better.
I believe that Tyler should get as much time as possible. Driving at the speed limit he was on that road is tremendously dangerous! He was selfish and trying to show off. There is no good reason for that accident except stupidity of a teenage boy that knew it was dangeous but put his and 3 other lives at stack and then that poor old lady too. When I drive on 25 now trust me I slow down when coming to that intersection becuase I wont let a teenager or anybody else take my life away from me! He knew better then to drive that fast and that there was a stop sign coming up. My honest opinion 16 years wasn’t long enough for killing his two friends and a baby, and that old women!I think he got off too easy!
Please forward to us any of the news articles that prove what you allege. Because from all the sources I read, these “facts” weren’t given.
Regardless whether someone is a “druggy” or not a good student, the point still stands. Tyler could’ve been a bong-smoking wastoid, but metabolites in his blood do not prove that he was impaired at the time of the accident. If he smoked and drank “the night before at a party”, then he would not be impaired by that the next day.
If someone is a high school dropout with a drug problem, the solution to that isn’t sixteen years in prison. I am truly sorry about the people that died in the collision, but sixteen years isn’t going to bring them back, either.
also he aslo had marijuana in the car. it was found in the glove box after the accident
just to inform the people that was not tyler’s first or last time smokin pot or do other drugs. tyler is known for being a druggy even before the accident. he still today smokes pot. tyler hasnt showed any remorse. he dropped out of school with less than a GPA of 1. the pot that was in his system was also not 2 weeks old. he smoked and drinked the night before at a party. tyler deserves every bit if not more of his punnishment